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The Amistad: A Historical Reenactment
Presented by the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division, First Department
In-Person Only • Appellate Division, First Department, 27 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10010
The Society joins the Appellate Division, First Department’s recognition of Black History Month with this program that features a reenactment of the Amistad legal proceedings, in which the U.S. Supreme Court found that free Africans were kidnapped from their homelands by force by Spanish enslavers. The reenactment script was first written by Hon. Denny Chin’s team in the Federal Bar Council Inn of Court in 2015 and was subsequently updated by Judge Chin and Kathy Hirata Chin to provide greater detail about the Amistads and their role in their own story in 2024. The updated script was first performed by Fordham Law School’s BLSA in 2024.
About the Case
In 1839, the schooner Amistad appeared in the waters off Long Island. On board were two Spaniards and a group of Africans they purchased in the Havana slave market. The Spaniards had chartered space on the Amistad to transport the Africans to sugar plantations in Cuba.
On the fourth night at sea, some of the Africans broke out of their irons, killed the cook who had taunted and threatened them and then killed the captain. The Africans commandeered the Amistad, intent on sailing back to Africa. Instead, some two months later, the Amistad reached Long Island Sound, desperate for water and provisions. A U.S. Navy brig captured the Amistad and took custody of the ship, its cargo, and the Africans.
Legal proceedings ensued, continuing all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, on the question of whether the Amistad Africans were “property” or whether they were free people.
Free CLE Credit
Reception to Follow
Sponsored by:
Historical Society of the New York Courts
Judicial Friends Association
Metropolitan Black Bar Association